June 16, 2016

There is no doubt that it can
be difficult to leave content-focused, engaging activities for your students
when you will be out. You wonder if the topics will be taught effectively or if you will have to reteach when you get
back. You wonder if the students will be on task without you being there
to redirect them. Regardless of the reason, when we are out we need
content-rich, meaningful activities/lessons for our students so that we don’t
lose precious time. We all know time is limited and we need to use it wisely.

I’m also going to guess that
you are like me and we usually need to pull something together quickly.

When I need focused,
engaging, purposeful activities, I pull out science and social studies
scavenger hunts, review BINGO, and “I Have, Who Has?” games.

Easy prep. Full of content.
Completely fun and engaging for students. Win-win-win. They even go seamlessly
together if you want to combine them.

Using these activities has
given me confidence that my students are still learning the content they need
to know while I’m away and they are super easy to prep. Side note: The holiday activities are PERFECT for parties!

June 14, 2016

Let’s
be honest. Many of us became teachers partially because it is a career that
allows us some perks with our own offspring. We love teaching "other people's kids," but our own children are our world. I don’t even care when people give
me grief for having holidays and summers off because, DUH!... I knew what I was
doing when I chose this career! I fully intended on having summers off with my
kids and soaking up as much fun as possible with them. My internal (and
sometimes external) response to the negative comments is, “Don’t be mad because
you didn’t think of it too!” J

I can’t
wait until my kids actually attend the school in which I teach 5th
grade. My oldest is almost there! Many of my teacher friends are greatly
enjoying watching their kids progress through the elementary years under their personal
supervision. Of course there are also some downsides to having your kids at
work, but I’ll just focus on the positives for today.

Perk #1: Coverage

Depending
on your team (mine is incredible), you can cover for each other when something
comes up. When your child has a special presentation, they want you to come
to their Valentine’s Day party, or they are having a meltdown because they lost
their favorite pencil… okay maybe not so much the last one.

Perk #2: Their
Teachers

You
have a “behind-the-scenes” look at your children’s future teachers AND you can
usually pick them. We know our kids’ best and worst attributes, and we can
generally tell which teacher is going to suit them best.

Perk #3:
Forgetfulness

Our
children will forget things. Important things. Like the field trip form they
forgot to give you and it is due TODAY. No biggie… you can save the day without
having to get permission to leave work and haul across town to get to your kid’s
school with the slip in hand.

Perk #4: Being
a Chaperone

You
know your kid’s teacher will let you have your pick of the best trip of the
year….

Perk #5: What’s
my kid eating?

Walk
through the cafeteria at any given time and you’ll see it. Kids go through the
lunch line, get a hot dog, chips, and ice cream. Their parents have no idea
that’s what they are eating every day. Or, they come with a fabulous home
lunch, eat 3 bites, and then throw the rest away. I’m TOTALLY going to find
ways to spy on my kids eating lunch every now and then. Or at least ask the
aides in the cafeteria if my kids are eating the food I give them!

Perhaps
your kids are currently or have previously attended your school? Please comment
and share some of the other perks you’ve experienced OR some downsides!

June 4, 2016

Many teachers
have an interest in getting their students to read and respond to current event
articles. I think that’s why Studies Weekly magazines are so popular. But what
if you could engage your students by letting them choose topics of their own
interests, while still accomplishing the goals of getting them to read
carefully and respond appropriately?

When I
created science and social studies templates for current event articles, I
needed a great kid-friendly source with articles that would peak their
interest. I wanted my students to be able to choose articles that they were
excited to read and write about.

A website
called, DOGO News, was just what I was looking for. The website continuously
produces high interest articles that even I find fascinating. The best part is
that it is geared toward kids, so you don’t have to worry about the content. Please know
that I discovered this website on my own and have not been asked to promote
them. I just genuinely think it rocks and so do my students.

June 3, 2016

Testing overload. No doubt
about it. Between district testing for some, in addition to state testing, it
feels difficult to justify giving our poor students a chapter test too… and it
just doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Perhaps some aren’t feeling the
stress, but most teachers and students I know are just flat burnt out on
testing. Teaching 5th grade for 6 years has given me a heavy dose of
this reality.

As if the number of tests aren't enough, math and science
questions are usually embedded in a sea of reading. If a child struggles to read and
understand what the question is asking, how can they solve the math problem
buried in it? It is so important to help students learn to problem solve and
think critically, with or without high-stakes testing. I start helping my students prepare from about the third
week of school. You may be thinking that is overkill and too early… but not
when done properly. If anything, it has helped my students to become confident
test takers with far less stress. We work on specific routines that don’t
actually feel much like test prep, and we practice all year long. I feel that
it is about helping students to form good habits long term, not slamming
strategies in shortly before, which can add to the stress of the test.

I would
like to share with you how I help my students prepare all year, with low
anxiety and great success. The guided toolkit I will refer to is a collection
of strategies and procedures that I have put together to increase my students’
success in problem solving multiple choice word problems. They may seem like
common sense, and they probably are! However, I believe that many teachers are
looking for help in implementing test-taking strategies at a variety of grade
levels.

***So how do I do it? Through a
Question of the Day routine with specific critical-thinking, problem solving
strategies. Oh, and you will see that this becomes STUDENT-LED, so the focus is
on keeping students on track while letting them do the thinking!***

Imagine this: one of your
students is standing at the front of the room with the projector displaying the
Question of the Day. The students have already worked the problem out on their
own paper. Today’s student leader is calling on students and leading the class
through each strategy while discussing the “how” and “why” for each
decision they make. You have a backseat role as you observe how awesome your
students really are as they work together to problem-solve. Occasionally you
throw in the assist and do what a teacher does best, but overall, they are running
the show. I LOVE watching my students get better at this all throughout the
year and they LOVE when it is their turn to be the “teacher.”

* First, I introduce students
to the critical thinking, problem-solving strategies that students can rely on
and use all year long. Click here to get my test-taking strategies posters FREE!!! I have created a
gradual release PowerPoint presentation to guide both teacher and students
through this process (YOU learn along with your kiddos!)

* Students receive a
strategies guide card (laminate them to use over and over with an Expo marker!)
they use to mark off each strategy as they work through their Question of the
Day problem. Eventually they won’t need this anymore, but they like to be able
to follow step-by-step at the beginning.

* Use the first two weeks of
questions in my toolkit (or any questions you find beneficial) and work through
one each day using the student guide card. You lead for the first day or two,
and then gradually let students begin to take over. The two-week set (10 days)
of questions are focused on “Making Inferences in Science.” The questions are
based on my Making Inferences in Science Task Cards.

Of course, this is just a
very brief overview of how it works, so check out the PREVIEW HERE to see more!

Please note, these strategies
are intended for multiple-choice questions, but as I will mention later, can
also be adapted to fit other types of questions as well. This resource is intended
to be a GUIDE, not a perfect to-do list. It is NOT research-based. It is simply
a resource I created to share what has worked for me in MY classroom with MUCH
practice throughout the year.

(I
make no claims that you will see increased test scores by using this resource,
but if you read feedback
from teachers that have purchased my toolkit, you’ll see they love it!)

The most important piece of
advice is to start as soon as you can and PRACTICE every day if possible, or at
least most days. This lends itself perfectly to morning work time. The idea is
to develop habits so that come test time, students are ready to tackle the
challenge and hopefully won’t feel nearly as anxious. It takes a bit of the edge off for you too. J